put the SSD in a external USB case. it can be a USB3 or USB2 case. it does not matter because the MBP from 2011 only has USB2. get the cheapest case you can find because you will never use it again. or you might if you put the old internal drive in here afterward. I would not. but that is because that drive is very old.

format the SSD with Disk Utility. then use Carbon Copy Cloner to move the contents of the spinning disk to the SSD. it will take about 3-4 hours to complete. make sure the Energy Saver in System Preferences is set to NEVER sleep so that it will complete the task.

once the copy from there to here is completed check that the SSD will boot using Startup Disk in System Preferences. once you know that it does boot, shut down.

now, on to brian, err brain surgery. follow the guide on iFixit to open the MBP to replace the hard drive. never mind that there are no specific steps for SSD. the steps are the same same. SSD is a hard drive that does not spin.

check all the cables and connections one last time. then close it all up.

boot. bong. start up screen. hurray.

notice how fast it works now. like it is a brand new Mac. wonder why you waited so long to do this…

I forgot to add another thing I almost always do. that is, remove the CD/DVD and replace it with another hard drive or another SSD. as a hard drive is BiGGER and CHEAPER compared to an SSD it makes it ideal for the big, archives, apps, and other not so accessed files. the CD / DVD Caddy used to cost lots more. but now that this particular Mac is old the upgrade is really cheap. eBay is your friend. for example…

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In 2011, I bought a top of the line MacBook Pro (2.3 Ghz i7, Hi-res Anti Glare Screen) and it is still going strong (Photoshop, Lightroom, Office, Keynote) due to upgrades along the way. As well as replacing the battery twice and preventative maintenance of replacing the processor's thermal paste (quite a scary job at the time) here's how it now looks:

I've looked at the latest MacBook Pro models and whilst I would love a retina screen and he performance increases of their new processors and architecture, I would miss the available storage I now have (unless I add over £1000 and custom configure it to include a 2TB SSD) and some of those things Apple used to do to help the professional market choose Apple - for example:

if you are needing more RAM or CPU/GPU or storage consider on of the 2008-2010 Mac Pro. you can get one of these for $400 or less. for this price you will not find one with a modern GPU. there are a few options for cards that will just drop in and work in the $100 range. do not be tempted for a more expensive more more card. and at some point a faster GPU will not help you. RAM wise you can get 32GB for under a $1oo. almost all of the available RAM is retired from servers so it is cheap. you do not need to get RAM with BiG fins as Apple warns. whatever, that Mac is long out of warrantee.

as I use tablets more and more I find my need for "portable Mac" nearly non-existent. and I really only use one when I travel. that Mac, a last of its kind 13" MPB, has 8GB of RAM and an SSD. it captures photos, edits, and has a workable keyboard. I loath the trackpad on it. when or if it stops working I will not replace it with another Mac. or maybe it will be a MacBook Air that gets gifted to me as this stuff happens. "want this?" she said. "sure… I can recycle it. thanks!"

one of my tado items is to do work on a Chromebook. given that these things are so cheap it has been on my radar to do a test. I have been reluctant because I do not like the far reach of any giant corporation(s). my files are my files blah blah blah. but there are reasons to work this way. maybe it will kinda sorta work for me. dunno.

unrelated to any of this. and more so you know where I am coming from how I use computers. I was given two older iPad. one of them I dedicated to the task of reading comics. the other is a synth because it does not work unless it has power.

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My Wife's MBP 2012 has slowly be wanting more and more space and is getting slower and slower.

Anyway, I have decided to go with the OWC Data Doubler with a 500GB or 1TB SSD ($250 Sandisk at BestBuy) for the boot drive and a 2TB or maybe 3TB HDD for everything else (right now she has about 100GB left on the 2TB HDD). When I do the install, does it matter which drive I put where? In other words, do I have to put the boot drive in the spot where the original drive is now and the HDD in the Data Doubler?

Also, are there any formatting tips anyone could give me?

I know there OWC has great install and formatting videos, but no videos on how to format the second drive. I've read in another post about johnfoster using symbolic links (Did I assume that is what SYMLINK is?)

the symlink link I wrote is outdated. there is a UI in the User & Groups that works better. Right Click on the name you will see an Advance Options… that gives you all the options that other thing did with a click.

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why is the simlink to the /applications folder on the HD outdated? two reasons. one is that when I wrote the SSD swap the storage was tiny and expensive. there simply was not room on a 32 or 64 gee bee “disk” for everything I was using. it really was just a boot disk for me. and in my day to day use I found that the benefits of a small SDD made the slight slowdown of having apps on the other disk almost unnoticeable.

today, the SSD you want starts at 240 gee bees with a cost of under a hundred bucks. although you can get smaller 120s for $40. why subject yourself to smaller? unless your budget needs to be stretched to upgrade multiple machines buy the biggest thing you can afford. then you can put all your apps on the SSD to get the added benefit of that as well.

and with no need to manage the where apps live, just install away.

finally, always practice backup. get back blaze, another hard drive, or a NAS. put your important stuff another place.

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I purchased the 1TB Sandisk SSD and the 2TB WD Blue HDD. I figured that I would use the SSD as my usual drive and then use the Data Doubler HDD for the storage hogs (Photos and iTunes). Adam covered it many times on the Maccast about using an external drive for Photos and iTunes libraries, so I would think it would be the same for my application. I have a 250GB SSD in my 2011 MacBook Pro that does not use Photos or iTunes and have about 30GB left over.

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So I installed the 2 drives installed a clean version of High Sierra on the SSD, well it was actually Lion (I think) and then I had several updates to get it to High Sierra.

Anyway, I got the SSD on APFS with High Sierra and the HDD formatted with APFS. I moved the iTunes and Photos libraries to the HDD and I managed to get them running from these old libraries. Photos was easy and straight forward, but iTunes proved more challenging. I forgot to deauthorize and sign out of iTunes and that was the biggest problem I had. Once I did that, it was easy sailing.

My next problem I have is getting my wife's email onto the new drive. I have read a few sites and they did not work.

Does anyone know if it is possible to use migration assistant just for email?

Or if anyone knows of a method that might work?

She uses iCloud and GoDaddy email (imap).

Thanks for the help.

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If she's using IMAP and keeping all the messages on the server it should be a simple matter of re-adding the email accounts and waiting while things sync up. You shouldn't need to really migrate the email.